Sunday, 19 March 2017

We have a glorious sea view from our home and I could easily while away a day watching the ocean change colours!. From indigo to deep turquoise, almost sky blue to aqua, and silver to grey on cloudy days. Quite often two or more bands of colour are clearly visible at the same time.

Some days the humidity is so high that the line between ocean and sky becomes a blur, and a thick moisture bank hangs over the valleys.

The past summer has been unbearably hot and humid - so much so that I have forgotten what it feels like to be cool and comfortable. Very little gets done around here in the heat. We sit around limply sipping on ice tea and lemonade - questioning the sanity of our move to the coast! There have been a few days where a move to Alaska seemed very attractive!

The obvious downside to the long unrelenting summer heat is that not much hooking gets done. Face / Wash cloths (HERE and HERE) and the occasional scarf are about the biggest projects I can manage.

Not much pattern writing gets done either - my brain is in molten state most days! I have at least managed to finish and publish two patterns though.....

The ZOOTY OWL POCKET SCARF (Pattern available on Ravelry) is made with Stylecraft Special Chunky, 100% premium Acrylic

The 2 Zooty Owls take a bit of patience to make - but are easily mastered. Once you have made the owls the rest of the scarf hooks up in no time at all. Little hands and wrists can hide from the cold in the generous pockets (which are big enough for small to medium adult hands).

Adding a few rows to the length makes the scarf a gorgeous winter warmer for a grown up daughter or niece.

The squares are made separately and are thus ideal for use in other projects such as a baby blanket or a poncho for a toddler or young child. (The yarn for the Owl Scarf was sponsored by Stylecraft).

On Easter Sunday, when my children were young, we would scatter a few marshmallow eggs around the garden with a colour sticker. Each child would have to find the eggs with their colour sticker on (so that they each got the same number of eggs). Rather than go overboard with the chocolate buying we would get them each a fluffy bunny toy or a bunny mug - something "bunny" that would be enjoyed throughout the year.

I first made the Bunny Scarf for my children about 20 years ago! I resurrected the idea from an Easter photo I came across while going through my late mom's photos. The bunnies have friendly 3d faces, and sweet floppy ears.

The pockets are ideal to hide little treasures in and to keep little hands from the cold.

The bunnies do require a bit of patience to make but can still easily be made by a novice. I have used Chunky yarn for the Bunny Scarf and so it is easily completed in a few hours.

Both my scarves were made for little girls. You could easily make the scarf suitable for a boy by removing the flower and adding a tassle of "yarn hair" instead. The BUNNY SCARF pattern is available on Ravelry.

As a little "THANK YOU" you can buy both the Zooty Owl Scarf and Bunny Scarf patterns for $5 dollars using Coupon Code: Easter2017Promotion valid from 19 March - midnight on 26 March 2017.

I still have a LOT of news to share with you, but it has started raining and I am going to take full advantage of the cooler temperature to get some hooking done.!Happy hooking friends - I hope the weather treats you kindly wherever in the world you find yourselves!

Monday, 3 December 2012

It's been raining cats and dogs here since yesterday afternoon - the sun peeked out between the clouds about ten minutes ago - but it is still heavily overcast. Just the weather for a nice lamb stew and a baked pudding (supper sorted!!)

I had bought another sheet of the "Easter" foam and foil stickers from the Crazy Store - made a few quick cards using some leftovers I had on my table.

I added some "googly eyes" to the bunnies. You can find "googly eyes" at most haberdasheries - even the hardware hypers are stocking them lately (craft section).

I used some of my paper flowers to embellish the card above. These are super easy to make. I used a flower stencil to stencil small flower shapes onto strips of paper with a pencil. Dip the paper into water and then crumple up. Leave crumpled until almost dry. Uncrumple and gently smooth out (don't iron these). Cut out the flower shapes. Pierce a hole in the middle of each one (a darning needle works quite well) Layer up three shapes and secure with a brad.

Food starting to smell really yum. Off to add the next lot of ingredients and then maybe get a bit more crafting done before supper!